The World
The world is increasingly designed to depress us. Happiness isn’t very good for the economy. If we were happy with what we had, why would we need more? How do you sell an anti-aging moisturizer? You make someone worry about aging. How do you get people to vote for a political party? You make them worry about immigration. How do you get someone to buy insurance? By making them worry about everything. How do you get them to have plastic surgery? By highlighting their physical flaws. How do you get them to watch a TV show? By making them worry about missing out. How do you get them to buy a new smartphone? By making them feel like they are being left behind.
To be calm becomes a kind of revolutionary act. To be happy with your own non-upgraded existence. To be comfortable with our messy, human selves, would not be good for business.
– Matt Haig from Reasons to Stay Alive
This is so important. So. Important.
Our society peddles fear in order to keep the few who are at the top at the top. When we digest, unexamined, the fear fed to us, we are giving away our power – and falling out of step with the higher-vibrating truths of our souls.
They say there are only two real forces in the Universe: Fear and Love. Most of us are operating from fear, particularly because our hierarchical societal structure depends on us being terrified, feeling alone and threatened, abandoning empathy, and giving away our power.
It’s a tricky cycle that feeds itself. Each of us has to be responsible for the way it impacts and puppets us.
One of the tools I’ve personally adopted is this:
When presented with something via media, social media, news, government, hierarchical structures, pop culture, etc., I ask myself: “Who benefits from my believing this? Who derives power from me taking this in?”
I find that this question literally interrupts the process of me taking in what’s outside of me and internalizing it. It pulls me front and center into the present moment and brings me conscious. Whether I uncover additional information about what I’m presented with or not, I am (and this is most important) engaging own discernment and I now have a CHOICE about what I believe/take in/consider/dismiss. Ultimately, the question enables me to take my power back and decide, for myself, what may enter into my being and influence me and what may not.
Listen, it’s a lot of damn work to stay conscious these days. The fear-mongering, designed to get us to abandon empathy, forget our souls and give away our power, is at an all-time high. This is why going into your soul, doing your healing work, checking your thoughts, owning your biases/assumptions/fears and maintaining a commitment to delving deeper into yourself and your lessons are all fundamental. To me, these are the modern-day rules for survival.
